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Democrats Abroad’s Committee for Platform Planning Process Online (C3PO) wants to know what issues matter to you as a Democrat living abroad. Your input can help shape DA’s Platform. Run a Kitchen Table Talk - event in a box here - and make your voice heard! Scroll down to see optional details on this topic.

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Electronic Ballot Return for Americans Abroad

Do you support promoting secure online ballot return in states that currently require postal mailed or faxed ballot returns?

BACKGROUND

  • Rates of ballots returned and counted for voters covered by the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) are well below those of the general population;
  • A sizable population of UOCAVA voters live in countries that do not have a national postal system available to them;
  • In 2018, the most common reason for UOCAVA ballots to be rejected upon return was because they were received at their local election office after state deadlines;
  • The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) promoted accessibility, including expansion of electronic systems as a means of improving UOCAVA ballot return rates; and as a result more than 30 states currently provide some UOCAVA voters with the option to return ballots using a digital communication method (email, fax, or a web portal);
  • While documented intrusions into local election offices and political organizations in 2016 have amplified cybersecurity concerns, the risk of adverse impact of malicious tampering that targets a ballot returned by a UOCAVA voter using a digital communication method is minimal;
  • Most states that offer electronic transmission of ballots limit that transmission to UOCAVA voters, minimizing risk. Current methods support paper balloting systems and post-election risk-limiting audits through ballot duplication:

REFERENCES

Disinformation and Fake News

Do you support strengthened regulation of social media companies, including increasing individual consumers' personal data privacy, pushing social media companies to accept greater responsibility in response to fake news on their platforms, and requiring that they provide further transparency in their policies.

BACKGROUND

  • The term disinformation refers to deliberate attempts to confuse, mislead, deceive, manipulate and polarize people through delivering inaccurate information, such as fake news – news items, stories, videos or hoaxes created to misinform or deceive readers.
  • Technology has transformed the ways in which we access and share information and personal data via social networks and social messaging.
  • Disinformation is particularly effective because automated technology facilitates high levels of organization, capacity to spread inaccurate information widely, and powerful methods of swaying recipients. It facilitates the combination of parallel and intersecting communications strategies with other tactics like computer hacking or blackmail.
  • The perpetrators of disinformation prey on the vulnerability or partisan biases of recipients whom they hope to enlist as amplifiers and multipliers.
  • Disinformation negatively impacts and weakens public attitudes to authentic expertise on health, science and social issues, and impedes intercultural understanding.
  • The impact of disinformation and fake news on the public has the potential to threaten elections and undermine the ideals and reality of democracy.
  • AI-generated content / deepfakes, Platform accountability debates, 2024 election misinformation concerns as some more recent examples

REFERENCES

  • Journalism, ‘Fake News’ & Disinformation, Handbook for Journalism Education and Training, UNESCO https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/journalism_fake_news_disinformation_print_friendly_0.pdf
  • WEAPONS OF MASS DISTRACTION: Foreign State-Sponsored Disinformation in the Digital Age https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Weapons-of-Mass-Distraction-Foreign-State-Sponsored-Disinformation-in-the-Digital-Age.pdf
  • Finland is winning the war on fake news. What it’s learned may be crucial to Western democracy, CNN https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2019/05/europe/finland-fake-news-intl/

Gun Violence Prevention Legislation

Do you support actively prioritizing gun violence prevention legislation? This legislation may include but is not limited to:

  • Banning high-capacity magazines and the manufacture and sale of semi-automatic weapons while introducing programs to manage those already in private hands; 
  • Stricter disarmament of domestic abusers and high-risk individuals, including better coordination between local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies to those ends; 
  • Fully funding the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to research gun violence; 
  • Eliminating Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) restrictions which hinder monitoring of gun sales; 
  • Strengthening universal required background checks on all gun sales including online and at gun shows.

BACKGROUND

  • Every day an average of 100 Americans are killed with guns” to “The CDC estimates  that each day nearly 130 Americans are killed with guns, making gun violence a leading public health crisis in the United States.
  • In recent years, more than 45,000 Americans have been killed annually by firearms.
  • Firearms are reported to be the second leading cause of death for American children” to say it is now the number one leading cause (Source)

REFERENCES

  • "Gun Violence In America - Everytownresearch.Org". 2019. Everytownresearch.Org. https://everytownresearch.org/gun-violence-america/. 
  • Nearly 40,000 People Died From Guns In U.S. Last Year, Highest In 50 Years". 2019. Nytimes.Com. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/us/gun-deaths.html.

National Census

Do you support urgent action to support, fund and execute a census count that accurately counts all people residing in the US? 

BACKGROUND

  • Recent Census counts, including 2020, continue to shape how political power and representation are distributed in the United States;
  • The number of congressional seats and Electoral College votes each state is allocated are determined by census numbers;
  • Census data guides the distribution of more than $2.8 trillion annually in federal funding for schools, healthcare, infrastructure, and other essential public services;” (Source: U.S. Census Bureau. “Census Data Shapes How More Than $2.8 Trillion in Federal Funding Is Distributed Each Year.”)
  • The Trump Administration has threatened and will continue to advocate for a questioning of citizenship on the Census, thus jeopardizing its numerical accuracy (with the unintended consequence of an undercount) and potentially the immigration status of participants;
  • The Census provides the numerical data for States to re-district and potentially gerrymander districts, thus challenging or inhibiting the voting rights of thousands if not millions of potential voters.

REFERENCES

  • Hansi Lo Wang, ‘2020 Census Could Lead to Worst Undercount of Black, Latinx, People in 30 Years’, NPR, 4 June 2019. https://www.npr.org/2019/06/04/728034176/2020-census-could-lead-to-worst-undercount-of-black-latinx-people-in-30-years 
  • Hamby, Chris. ‘Disinformation: Why Experts Are Worried About the 2020 Census’, NY Times, 3 July 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/03/us/2020-census-digital.html 
  • Cobb, Jelani. ‘Stacey Abrams’s Fight for a Fair Vote’, The New Yorker, 12 August 2019. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/08/19/stacey-abrams-fight-for-a-fair-vote

Prison Gerrymandering

Do you support the Census Bureau and states counting incarcerated individuals at their last home address, rather than the location of incarceration, in Census data and redistricting practices?

BACKGROUND

  • The U.S. Census Bureau counts incarcerated individuals as residents of the (often rural) locations where they're imprisoned rather than the (often urban) areas from which they came, even though the average felony sentence is only approximately three years; and
  • Census data is then used by States in determining legislative districts, which artificially inflates the apparent population of rural districts, while diminishing the apparent population of urban districts; and
  • Many states restrict voting rights for individuals with felony convictions, further distorting political representation; and
  • Prison gerrymandering violates the Constitutional guarantee of “one person one vote”. The Supreme Court of the United States has held that voting districts should contain roughly equal numbers of people to ensure the 14th Amendment guarantee of equal rights for all, and “one person, one vote”.
  • Prison gerrymandering also violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which provides that minority voters must have an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice, which can’t be achieved if the voting power of the majority is inflated by prison gerrymandering.
  • The Census Bureau allows states to request data to reallocate incarcerated populations to their home addresses for redistricting purposes.

REFERENCES

  • What is Prison Gerrymandering? https://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/impact.html
  • State legislation https://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/legislation.html#pending 
  • H.R. 1 Section 2701 (g)(1) provides: “Effective beginning with the 2020 decennial census of population, in taking any tabulation of total population by States under subsection (a) for purposes of the apportionment of Representatives in Congress among the several States, the Secretary shall, with respect to an individual incarcerated in a State, Federal, county, or municipal correctional center as of the date on which such census is taken, attribute such individual to such individual’s last place of residence before incarceration. https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1/text#toc-H1A2DB57FE627439BAF8FCDA7D46EA01A